Omens
by The Sacred and Profane
Summary: Tifa, Squall, and the omens in their lives. Oneshot for Rhino7.


Omens

Tifa's eyes gleamed as she looked at her husband of sixty years, that gaze of hers the same as when he had first met the girl who would become the woman he would pledge his life to.

Shifting a bit, bones creaking nearly as much as the bed they were in, Tifa's multitude of wrinkles smooshed together as she smiled.

"There's a storm coming. I have that itch just above my left hip."

"Whatever," Squall replied, earning himself a glare in place of the loving gaze.

"I thought you of all people could appreciate omens, especially coming from an old woman."

"You don't look a day over forty."

Tifa rolled her eyes then and turned around.

"Whatever..."

/

Tifa clutched her toy moogle close to her six year old side, looking up at the dark clouds overhead.

It was the rarest of sights here in Radiant Garden, which normally boasted clear skies. She had been drawn to the sky, her moogle whispering in her head that she'd love to see the sky too. So the six year old had gone outside, away from the warmth of her tiny home.

The wind blew her pig-tails every which way but she didn't run back inside.

That's when she felt a hand tug at her own.

Turning around, she saw a boy, around her own age, his blue eyes wide.

"C'mon, we've got to get inside. The lightning might get us!"

But she didn't move, simply turned her attention back towards the darkening sky.

"Monsters," she whispered.

She could feel them all around, feel their fangs and claws crawl their way down her spine and she knew, beyond any doubt, that this was fate bearing down on her world.

Turning back to the boy, she finally allowed him to take her inside.

"I'm Tifa and this is Kupo," Tifa said, holding up her doll.

"My name's Squall."

/

The monsters didn't come right away but they remained a presence in the back of Tifa's mind. They were with her through puberty, the first crush, the first kiss with a timid Cloud, the deaths of her father and mother, until, one calm evening, the sky is rent asunder and the monsters come.

They sever all that came before, her friends, her home, even her world, all save for one other person: Squall.

The years since their first meeting had been kind to him, his body toned and primed, gun-blade tearing through the nearest. The rest twitch this way and that before all jump, Tifa reacting with a vicious kick, turning a full circle.

But it's not enough and they clasp hands as the darkness behind the monsters consumes Radiant Garden.

/

They wake up in an unfamiliar place only to find familiar faces. Cid, Yuffie, and Aerith aid them in constructing some semblance of normalcy, years spent gathering as much information as they can. The King visits, the monsters are given a name, and Ansem's experiments float around in their memories like phantoms.

Amid all this, Tifa gets another shiver coursing through her, but it's not of fear. No, this shiver comes from the way Squall, she refuses to call him Leon, is looking at her. His eyes are uncertain, throat swallowing the unease she can see in his stance.

Taking his arm, she places it on her hip, moving closer.

"I want this."

He nods and then kisses her, Tifa grateful that this small fragment of fate didn't drag on like the years between the clouds and the Heartless.

She kisses back a few moments after they part.

It's barely a month into this new relationship that normalcy is sundered, hope waking up in an alley.

/

She thinks of the boy she knew and the man he now was among the dunes just outside of Agrabah, dreams of the feeling of his scar as she traced it with her finger in the inn at Port Royal, remembers the pain gushing out from his normally controlled expression when she announces her plan to search for Cloud.

Even now, getting used to walking around as a warthog in the Pride Lands, she recalls the message her craft received as she hovered just outside this latest world.

He was restoring their world along with their friends.

/

She finally finds Cloud, only to watch him vanish after a fight with his darkness.

As she makes her way to the restored Radiant Garden, he finds her.

"How did you know I was here?"

He smiles though it doesn't reach his eyes just yet. "Just a feeling."

/

Peace takes more time to get used to than worldlessness but they get through it together.

Yuffie jokes about omens at their wedding reception when a mirror cracks and Tifa laughs along but the notion doesn't leave her.

Even after she consummates with Squall and she's holding onto him in the moonlight, omens spring to mind.

She traces his scar with her finger again, wondering what exactly caused it. She can recall when he got it, two days after he comforted her upon discovering that Cloud had feelings for Aerith, but she never asked him what had happened.

It's an ominous scar, she thinks, but not for her.

But soon enough sleep claws at her eyes and she snuggles closer to her husband.

/

"Told you so."

Squall turned his attention to his wife by his side, her wrinkled hand pointing towards the rain outside.

He made a sound of assent as he took her other hand in his.

"Well I've got that tremor in my heart."

"I don't think I've heard what that signifies," Tifa replied, squeezing as tight as she could.

"It means we've got more time with one another."

"How much more?"

"I'm not sure. It's just a tremor, but I first felt it after I told you to come inside all those years ago."

"You still want to be with me? Even with the wrinkles and the bad hip?"

He kisses her on the lips in answer and Tifa hopes his own omen means they'll have another lifetime together.


End file.
